Maharashtra: Education officers to be held accountable for unauthorised schools

The state government has pulled up education officials for failing to restrict the mushrooming of unauthorised schools in the state In a new development the state government issued a Government Resolution GR cautioning officials over the proliferation of unauthorised schools warning them of disciplinary actionThe GR issued on December 18 2023 explicitly states ldquoHenceforth if any new unauthorised school is discovered in any part of the state the respective education officer will be held personally accountable and disciplinary action will be initiated against themrdquoldquoThe order will act as a deterrent and make local officials more accountable We are already working on regularising existing unauthorised schools in the state while shutting down those with blatant and serious violations At the same time we want to ensure that no new unauthorised schools come up anywhere in the staterdquo said a senior official from the state school education departmentFollowing sharp criticism from both political and academic circles for the past few years about hundreds of schools rampantly operating without NoC and recognition from the state education department the state government started a drive to shut these schools and shift the students to nearby authorised schoolsIn the annual survey conducted by the education department of the BMC during the academic year 202223 269 primary schools were found to be unauthorised Of these 62 schools were closed whereas 13 schools managed to obtain government permission to run as private schools and acquired the status of selffinanced school In order to prevent them from suffering academic losses 1500 students from these 62 schools were accommodated and transferred to adjacent schoolsThis brought the total number of unauthorised schools in the city to 194 Sixteen more unauthorised schools were identified and added to the list in 2023 As per sources about 30000 students were studying in these 210 schoolsA severe crackdown began after the director of education Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools Krishna Kumar Patil in an order to his divisional subordinates in January this year stated that there should be no unauthorised schools in the state by the next academic year On April 25 deputy director of school education Mumbai Sandeep Sangave issued a notification directing officials to shut down such schools by April 30 and submit a reportIn June this year the education department of the BMC closed 22 unauthorised schools in Mumbai from the list of 210 Action was taken against these schools as per the rules stipulated under Section 18 5 of the Right to Education RTE Act 2009 According to this section any person or organisation that establishes or runs a school without obtaining a certificate of recognition or continues to run a school after withdrawal of recognition has to shut down and shall be liable to a fine which may extend to R1 lakh and in case of continuing contraventions R10000 each day The number of unauthorised schools has now come down to 187 in Mumbai cityRohit Dandawate president of Global Parentsrsquo Teachersrsquo Association said ldquoUrgent measures must be taken against existing unauthorised schools in Mumbai too While action is taken against smaller schools in slums such as in Dharavi it is perplexing that similar action is not enforced against bigger schools operating with blatant violations Despite continuous communication with the education department no substantial steps have been initiated to address the issue of unauthorised schoolsrdquoHe added ldquoEven our association wrote to the education department year after year alerting them about these unauthorised schools no action was taken by the education department against the schools or even the officials who aided these unauthorised schools The GR is welcome but will there be action taken or will this be just another eyewashrdquoldquoCan an unauthorised school continue to operate for years without the connivance of the authorities The deputy director of school educationMumbai had earlier issued a notification to name officials in FIRs for failing to act against the unauthorised schools in their area Unauthorised schools have been running for years students and parents are being cheated but the question is being raised why no action was taken What about action against officials who have aided the existing schools for so many years has any action been takenrdquo said Sushil Shejule coordinator Marathi School Management Association187No of unauthorised schools in city